Oh XIV. I always drove by it. It seemed like I wouldn’t ever be able to afford to even step onto the property unless I was going to work there or something (awww…). Then one day my sister asked me if I wanted to go for LA’s restaurant week (they had a $30 or $40 three course tasting menu). Of course, I accepted! I hadn’t been to an upscale restaurant in awhile. I wanted to see what this place was all about. Driving by, it seemed like a very busy restaurant with majorly high end clientele. We called to see what the dress code was: California Chiq. Uh, really? Oh, but it’s a fancy way of saying, jeans with heels or clubby. Haha…oh geez.
Taking this as an opportunity to dress up, of course, we all did (six ladies). We headed over, left our car with valet and walked towards the randomly positioned gentleman who made you suddenly realize that it was no coincidence as to where he was stationed. The front door, which looked like a secret entrance if one was not aware of where the door handle was. And so, we entered.
My sister walked up to the hostess stating that we were there for our 9PM reservation, though we were missing one person. The hostess said we needed everyone there before she could seat us. Two minutes later, the last of our party had arrived and my sister went up to the hostess again to inform her that our party was all present. The hostess stated that it would only be a few minutes…so we waited. And waited…after thirty minutes of chatter and noticing that everyone around us was getting seated, my sister went up to the hostess and asked why it was taking so long for them to seat us when we had a 9PM reservation. The hostess said that they weren’t aware that we were all there. WHAT?! ARE YOU KIDDING? Needless to say, we were all pissed. Especially my sister, who started doing the attitudinal neck weave from afar. (uh-oh). You would think that they would A) pay attention to what they were doing. (This IS Michael Mina’s after all), and B) a friend of ours chimed in and told the hostess that next time, you shouldn’t keep telling your guests “it’ll just be a few minutes” if it’s going to be more than 20 minutes!” Five minutes later, our table was ready.
Our waiter was pleasant. We all decided on the tasting menu which included a tasty appetizer of yogurt dusted with espresso and served with pita?, a first course of butternut squash soup or tuna tartare, hanger steak vs. lobster ravioli and choice of dessert. (Of course I had both).
The service was okay. They got a couple orders wrong and when asking everyone if we wanted coffee, they pretty much assumed that we weren’t interested. The food was simple. I don’t know if the regular menu is spectacular, but the tasting menu didn’t wow anyone at our table at all. Perhaps we expected too much and our standards were just not met OR it was just disappointing overall. I definitely expected to be wowed at the end of the night, but sadly, I wasn’t.
Update: XIV shuttered in 2011 and was taken over by Hyde Sunset Kitchen & Cocktails, a concept by SBE group, owners of The Bazaar Hotel on La Cienega, in 2014.